![]() For the past eleven days it has been witness to a constant flow of hundreds and thousands of people filling buses that never stop arriving and departing. The sidewalk facing el Capitolio is usually filled with hundreds of people waiting on line to see the latest film. Facing el Capitolio are a number of modern movie theaters, film being a very important pastime in Cuba. Similar in design to the Capital building in Washington DC, Capitolio was once the seat of Cuban government, but since the 1959 Revolution it is now the Cuban Academy of Science. I now bring you to another frequented tourist spot in Havana, el Capitolio. This week however there is a very different sort of crowd milling about the fortress. This is an often-frequented spot for visitors to Havana. Once a signal that the walls of the fortress were closing and population was to take refuge, it is now a reminder to Habaneros to check that their watches are in sync. Every evening, since the 18th century, there is a symbolic firing of the cannons at 9pm. It is rumored to have been built to resist pirates, buccaneers and corsairs. The fortress is comprised of underground tunnels, old dungeons and hundreds of ancient cannons. The fortress occupies a vast expanse of land with a wall that extends the length of the fortress, surrounded by a deep moat, once legend to have been filled with crocodiles. Imagine yourself in front of a 16th century fortress facing the Malecon in Old Havana, Cuba.
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